Another Tribe
by Simon Rumney
Summary: Julii, a beautiful, insecure and victimized Tennessee Indian is caught up in the white man's world after saving the life of a Confederate captain wounded at the battle of Shiloh. Overcoming great disadvantage, cruel prejudice and bitter persecution, Julii harnesses her intrinsic genius to become the Confederate States' most aggressive blockade-runner.
1. Chapter 1 Julii

Julii

 _Propitious_ is the word one eyewitness used to describe the weather in his report of the distant battle. That same report went on to say the battle was being fought between the Union army of the north and the Confederate army of the south at a place called Shiloh on Saturday the sixth of April in the year of 1863. But even if Julii had known of the report's existence, all of those words and numbers would have meant absolutely nothing because she had not yet met Captain Robert Calhoun, the man who would teach her the white man's language.

Blissfully unaware each step was taking her closer and closer to unimaginable heartache, she hummed as one foot fell, slapped the empty deer skin water bottle then whistled as the other foot hit the ground. The continuous rhythm made no discernible tune but Julii didn't care. She had been humming, slapping and whistling her way along this path, in a papoose on her mother's back or on foot, almost every morning of her eighteen years.

Fetching water for her family was entirely predictable. She knew birds would sing out to protect their nests because that's what they always did. She knew the sky would be blue or blue and white because it always was. She knew wind may shake the leaves all around her because it sometimes did that too. She knew the earlier rain would make her moccasins sticky and clumsy, but there was no danger of falling because she knew exactly where to place her feet. There were simply never any surprises... Then she stopped.

Something new and different caught her attention. It was a distant booming thunder sound, but this thunder sounded like no thunder she had ever heard before. Normal thunder came from above but this thunder seemed to roll along the ground from somewhere up ahead. Normal thunder came alone and at regular intervals with lightning. This thunder was more violent and crashed multiple times then all at once, then one at a time, then all at once again with no flashes of lightning. There was also the smoldering smell of smoke in the air but thunder had never smelled of smoke before. Looking up, Julii could see no clouds. Today the sky had chosen to be all blue and there was no wind shaking the leaves. _How can there be thunder?_ _Were the sky god's restless?_

She wanted to go back and ask her father but decided to push-on because her family was in need of water. She also knew her father would encourage her to work it out for herself because he always wanted her to think things through. She was trying really hard to imagine what could be making the noise when she stopped dead in her tracks once again.

She knew what a horse looked like because she had seen two wild ones at this very waterhole many years before. Just like them, the one now standing at the shallow bend in the river was drinking but this one seemed very different. It was brown all over, not blotchy like the brown and white ones she had seen. It was also in much better condition than the wild ones, bigger, taller and stronger, but even more different, this one had a really strange looking pink man attached to it.

His leg hung at an impossible angle from a shiny thing attached to the end of a long hide strap that went all the way to a heavy looking brown shiny thing on top of the horse. The brown shiny thing was made of hide and bowed at the top; it was attached by a hide strap that ran under the horse's belly. _Was it a natural part of the horse?_ _No._ _It was a different color and separate from the horse._ _It must be a man-made addition._

The strange pink man must have somehow attached the bowed thing to the top of the horse. _Why?_

It was the shape that gave Julii the clue. _Could he have been sitting on top of the horse?_ _Was the hide thing something to sit on?_ _Had the man fallen off of the horse?_ _Yes!_

 _The man had fallen from the top of the horse to the ground._ Julii imagined how falling from such a great height would cause terrible damage. _Was he dead?_ Julii moved closer to check for signs of life.

The strange man groaned as she prodded his leg. _He was alive._ That was a good thing, but now she was curious about the strange hide that covered his leg. It looked and felt like some kind of finely woven hide but the hide had no pattern and no stone or shell beads sewn into it. It was the same gray as the sky on a winter's morning.

It covered all of his legs but, when it reached his waist, it ended and another separate piece of the same woven gray hide covered his upper body. Everything except his hands, feet and head were covered by the gray hide. There was also a cruel yellow colored thing wrapped tightly around his neck. It was the same pretty yellow color of the flowers that come as the cold season ends and the warming begins, but it did not make her feel happy like seeing those flowers did.

Julii instinctively lifted her hand to feel the wide open neck of her soft deer hide dress. _How can someone wear something so constricting as that unforgiving yellow thing?_ _What does the yellow thing do?_ _It was clear the bowed hide seat thing's strap must keep it on top of the horse._ _Was it also clear that the yellow thing kept his head on top of his body?_ _No!_

That made no sense. _The man was alive because he had moaned._ _Men, even pink men, can't live without a head._ _Or can they?_ _Can pink men live without a head?_

Moving her head slowly from right to left, Julii imagined the discomfort such a restricting yellow thing would cause. _Maybe this man is being punished?_ _Surely, no one would do that to themselves?_ _Someone else must have done it to him._ _Did the same person hurt his leg too?_ _What awful deed had this pink man done to deserve such a terrible punishment?_

Julii took a hurried step backwards. _Was he going to do to her what he had done to deserve the yellow thing?_ Julii took another step backwards.

She was relieved to see the pink man was asleep and could not harm her but sad to see the agony stirring inside him every time the horse moved. _Oh no!_ It was her. Her movement was making the horse move.

She stopped moving and fixed the horse with a stare. The horse looked back at her. His big brown eyes seemed to be asking her for help. _How can a wild animal expect help from me?_ _How can the pink man sleep in all those restricting clothes while hanging from such a big horse?_ Nothing about this scene made any sense to Julii.

From deep within the pink man came a fretful sound which Julii found oddly comforting. Then she felt heartless and guilty, but it was not the pink man's suffering that gave her the feeling of comfort, it was his forlorn tone. _Not his tone exactly._

Now she berated herself for being cruel but she was not cruel. She had heard such hopeless sounds coming from a wolf with a broken leg, and it was that familiarity that gave her comfort. _Anyway, she knew what she really meant._

Reining in her guilty thoughts, Julii centered her attention on the problem at hand. _Focus on the wolf._ Her father had killed the wolf with the broken leg, and even though they did not eat the wolf, killing him had been the right thing to do. Julii's father had said: "The wolf was in pain and nothing should be made to suffer."

 _Should she kill the pink man who hung from the horse?_ _He was most definitely suffering._ Even though he would provide more meat than a wolf, Julii knew her family would never eat a man - not even such a strange, different and pale one. But he was suffering, and nothing should be made to suffer. _What should she do?_

 _Fetch father?_ _No!_

This was a puzzle Julii must solve by herself. Father would know what to do in an instant, _he always did,_ but even when she was very young, he trusted her ability to make the right decisions. _She would not let him down now._

Walking closer to the pink man, Julii gave all of her attention to the long shiny thing attached to his wrist by a woven hide. The hide was bright white. _How could that be?_ Julii had never seen bright white hide. _What sort of animal provided white hide, or gray hide, or even yellow hide for that matter?_

The long shiny thing looked like a longer version of her father's old knife but her father's knife didn't shine like this one. Her father's knife was made of the same stuff as this long knife; the stuff that sharpened on rocks and bent without breaking. Her father's knife had been handed down to him from his father and his grandfather; it was the only real knife in her little tribe and he was very, very proud of it.

 _He would be so much prouder of this long shiny knife but it was not hers or her father's to take._ _It belonged to the pink man._ _Only if the pink man died would she be able to give this long knife to her father._ What was she thinking? _She did not want the pink man to die!_ _She was only thinking!_ Now she berated herself again for being cruel, but she was not cruel. _Anyway, she knew what she really meant._

Looking closer, Julii noticed blood on the long shiny knife thing. She examined the pink man. _He had no obvious cuts and the horse had no cuts, so the blood must be from someone else!_

Julii took two rapid steps backwards causing the horse to move, which caused even more pain within the shiny pink man. She stopped.

 _Would he hurt her with the long shiny knife thing?_ _Had he hurt others?_ _Is that why he wore the yellow thing around his neck?_

Estimating the length of the pink man's arm and the length of the long shiny knife thing, Julii worked out how far he could reach at a stretch. She immediately took another step back. The horse moved, the man groaned and Julii stopped once again.

 _What now?_ _Take the shiny knife thing away?_ _Yes._ _Without the long shiny knife thing, he cannot hurt her._ Julii swiftly retraced her backward steps and bent down to remove the knife, but the pink man's hand moved with the speed of a rattle snake.

The hide thing that covered his hand then carried on over his wrist and flared out over his lower arm felt soft but the fingers inside were hard. They held on tight in the place where her light brown birthmark surrounded her wrist like a bracelet. _It hurt._ She was afraid. _Should she hit him?_ His leg hung from the horse in front of her. _Yes, his broken leg!_ As the shiny pink man screamed, he let go of Julii's wrist.

His agonizing scream was a truly awful sound but she did not dwell on it; Julii was too preoccupied with how touching the powerful muscles in his leg made her feel.

It was shamefully exciting. It was clear he hadn't always been so helpless; his leg felt strong, his belly was flat, and when she thought about it, his face, although a little dirty, was very good to look at. He made her feel happy. _No, not happy, different._ _He made her tummy feel funny._

The pink man's wonderfully blue eyes looked directly into hers and pleaded. Just like his horse, he was now appealing for her to make a decision that would improve his lot; it made Julii feel funny inside. Even though he lay helpless looking up to her for salvation, she wanted to smile. The warm feeling moved up from her tummy, past her neck and forced her lips to move upwards in a smile.

 _What was she doing?_ _Now the pink man would think her cruel._ She tried to force the smile from her lips and it turned into a spontaneous laugh. _What was she doing?_

Julii pointed at the long shiny knife thing. _Yes, this was a good idea._ _If he let go of the long shiny knife thing, she could help him._

The pink man understood immediately. He let the hide thing, which flared at the wrist, slip from his fingers and moved his hand away, leaving the flared thing still attached to the long shiny knife thing.

 _Was this a trick?_ As desperate as she was to touch the pink man again, Julii was still too afraid to approach him. _Could the hide thing, which flared at the wrist, still control the long shiny knife?_ _Would it strike if she walked too close?_

Julii looked closely at the arrangement of the hide and shiny knife thing lying on the grass. _It all looked very dead._

To show he meant Julii no harm, the shiny pink man opened his empty hand to let her know he had nothing concealed within.

 _How wonderful._ _We understand each other without words._ Julii could not believe she was thinking like a silly girl. _What was she doing?_ This man represented more danger than anything she had ever seen in all of her life. _Stop this!_ _Stop it now!_

Julii's deliberate and disciplined movement was swift. Her moccasin-covered foot had the long shiny knife thing, the white hide rope, and the hide hand covering moving away from his hand in an instant. Now she could feel safe enough to get close to see what held his leg in that awkward position.

She looked at the long black, shiny moccasin that covered his foot. It also covered the bottom of his leg almost up to his knee. _Did this man fear air touching his skin?_ _Everything except his head was completely covered._

Looking closer at his very light blond hair, Julii could see a flattened line of matted hair all around his head. _Even his head had been covered by something that must have fallen of as the horse dragged him here._

Re-focusing her girlish thoughts on the job at hand, Julii noticed another smaller, shiny thing attached to the heel of his long black moccasin. It was that smaller shiny thing that seemed to be caught within yet-another shiny thing at the end of the hide strap which hung from the bowed shiny thing on top of the horse.

 _Everything about this man was shiny._ Julii had seen more shiny things in the last few moments than she had seen in her whole life. _Where had he come from?_ Julii looked up to the sky for just a moment but that made no sense. The horse was of her world. The man, despite being whitish pink and funny looking, was of her world. It was just the shiny bits that connected him to the horse that made him different.

 _If she disconnected him from the horse, would he become normal?_ Julii was pleased with her deduction. _Father would be proud of her._

Reaching out, Julii released the man's long black moccasin from the shiny thing hanging from the bowed shiny thing on top of the horse. Her action freed the pink man from the horse but his leg fell to the ground with a thump.

 _There was that awful scream again._ It seemed to hurt Julii as much as the man. _How could that be?_ Julii felt embarrassed. She should have known to guide the leg down gently. She had not meant to make the pink man's suffering worse but that is exactly what she had done.

Still berating herself, Julii took a little comfort in the fact that, despite his agony, the shiny pink man's foot was free of the horse. Because of her initiative, the big animal's movements were no longer causing him pain and, despite the obvious damage caused by the careless fall of his leg, progress had been made.

 _What now?_ _Water?_ _Yes, water._ _Everyone, whatever color, must need water._

Julii retrieved her water skin, filled it, and held it up right next to the pink man's head. Gently tipping the skin, Julii tried to pour water slowly into his mouth but it gushed out all over his face.

Pulling the skin back upright, Julii apologized but he didn't seem to mind, in fact, he appeared grateful for the cool water. She tried again. She had never seen a man drink like this pink man drank; it was the agony of desperation and pleasure and torment all-in-one anxious action. Then, laying back onto the grass, the pink man closed his eyes and stopped being hurt.

Julii prodded his hard chest with a finger because she had at least a hundred questions for him to answer. There was so much to talk about but he would not wake-up. She held her ear to his mouth and could hear his breath going faintly in and out, so she knew he was still alive. _Good!_

She had not drowned him or killed him with the pain of letting his leg fall. _That was a good thing._

 _His breath smelt nice._ She moved closer to smell it better. His teeth were white and straight beneath his full pink lips. She had an incredible urge to touch his lips with her own. _What was she thinking?_


	2. Chapter 2 The last of the Koasati tribe

The last of the Koasati tribe

To pass the boring days of patiently nursing her shiny pink man through his coma, Julii filled her head with all sorts of fanciful ideas. She particularly liked to imagine what he would say when he woke up because, despite what everyone else in her tribe said, she knew that he was going to wake up.

 _They were all wrong._ _He was going to wake up, and she was going to have fascinating conversations and he was going to answer all of the questions she was dying to ask because he was going to wake up!_

 _His broken leg was healing, so that must mean his broken head was healing too._ She imagined how fantastic he would look when he stood up tall and proud. Of course she already knew how long he was, she could see that, but people looked different standing up. She just knew that her shiny pink man would hold himself upright with pride when he woke up. _He was definitely going to wake up!_

 _Would his first words be words of thanks for the loving care she had given him?_ _Would they be cheeky and flirtatious?_ Julii particularly liked that scenario. _Or would they be mundane words like: "Where am I?"_

Of all the possible questions he would ask when he woke up, Julii thought answering that one would be the easiest because she believed she knew all there was to know about her world.

She had spent lots of time with the elders of her tribe. She had listened attentively and learned all there was to learn about her world; she knew their land intimately all the way to its boundaries. The elders told how her people had been chosen by the sky God, and Julii believed that the gods had placed her people in this valley as a reward.

But the information was false. Everything she knew about her people, her life and her world was based on many life times of misinformation. She simply did not know that the land she lived on was called Tennessee. She simply had no idea the land had been named Tennessee by the Cherokee people. Truth be told, she had never even heard of the once proud Cherokee Nation.

Julii had also never heard of the Koasati tribe. She did not even know that she was a member of the Koasati tribe, and therefore, could have absolutely no idea that she was one of a very last of the Koasati people left in this place called Tennessee.

She did not even know the true reason why her tribe called this tiny but beautiful, well sheltered and fertile, valley "home", or that her ignorance was caused by nothing more than simple human shame.

It was shame that prevented Julii's great grandfather and great grandmother from telling their offspring about being banished from their respective tribes. Even when they were very old, the couple, still filled with shame, could never find the words to explain the raw emotions that caused their banishment. Those once intoxicating, impulsive, life and death feelings that had simply worn away with time. She, the powerful Chickasaw chief's only daughter, and him, far too low down the pecking order of a secondary tribe like the Koasati, to be taken seriously.

Their love had been ignored and eventually overruled by the elders of both tribes. She was simply too valuable an asset to be wasted on a nobody like him. Even in their youth they understood that a strong alliance between her people and important tribes like the Cherokee, or the Shawnee, or the Yuchi, or even the Quapaw would have been the best thing for both of their tribes but they loved each other.

Their meetings were made more exciting by being carried out in secret, but when she started to show with his child, their excitement turned to agony. Both his and her entire extended families had been banished, forever, forced to live far away from the safety of their tribes.

Their shameful new home had been chosen for them because it was known by both tribes as a _bad spirit place_ ; a place where no other humans ever wandered. This was a spiteful, dishonorable and terrible punishment made worse because they were considered outcasts, even within their own banished families.

After a lonely life together, Julii's great grandfather and great grandmother both went to the sky believing that their longed for tribes still lived happily in their ancestral hunting grounds, just as they had for many thousands of years. The awful truth was the direct ancestors of those two love sick fools were now the only native people left on the sweet lands east of the great Mississippi river.

The old couple simply did not know that both of the tribes they longed to rejoin, and all of the tribes in Tennessee, had been herded away west on the "trail of tears" by the ever treacherous white man. Like very poorly treated cattle, many of the native people were driven to their appalling deaths and, by a strange act of destiny, the old couples punishment had come just one moon before these so-called "tribal clearances".

Julii, like all of her people, did not know the real reason why she was where and who she was. Her father and mother had told her what their father and mother had been told by their father and mother.

All of the original "banished people" had been too ashamed to tell the truth about their foolish love-struck parents, so they made up the more palatable story of being the sky God's _chosen people_.

Until the arrival of her shiny pink man, Julii had believed that the members of her little tribe were the only people in the whole wide world. Now she believed that her shiny white-pinkish man laying naked by the fire in her father's tipi was going to explain everything about the world outside her valley - all he had to do was wake up. _He was going to wake up!_

From time to time, her pink-white man would stir long enough to sip water but he wasn't really awake. The noises he made were not words, they couldn't be, because Julii understood all of the words in the world.

As a child, Julii had sat for many, many hours with the elders learning every word they knew. People in her small tribe even came to Julii to learn about words, because she was recognized by her people as the one who knew them all. This is how she knew that the shiny pinkish-white man's unintelligible noises could not be words.

 _Why won't he wake up?_ Leaning over the shiny white-pink man, Julii lifted his neck and removed the leaves from the pus-oozing gash on the back of his head for the umpteenth time.

On the day she met him, she had not noticed the terrible cut on the back of his head because she was too afraid to get close to the man who represented so much danger. The deep gash had only been found later, by her mother, as she helped Julii pull the strange gray hide from his body.

She smiled at the thought of her fear on that first, strange, day. He seemed so harmless now that she had seen him naked. _Not harmless exactly, just different._ _Exciting._ _What was she thinking?_ _He needed fresh leaves!_

For the umpteenth time in three days, Julii left the tipi believing she needed to gather medicinal leaves. The truth was, there were already more leaves in her father's tipi than the pink-white man was ever going to need. Fetching leaves was simply the excuse she needed to go outside and calm herself down.

When she wasn't gathering leaves, Julii sat looking and waiting for the shiny pink-white man to wake up and answer her questions. His face seemed somehow familiar but that perception must have grown during the days she spent by his side. There was simply no way she could have seen him before, so it must be that.

She looked closer and smiled. His face made her feel like smiling again. _More leaves!_

She had many chores to do, but she kept putting them off because she had so many questions that needed answers. She could not remember ever having so many questions, even with the elders.

Julii had cleaned him and all of his shiny things more than once. She had told him all about what she was doing as she rubbed his body with the soft, damp, deer hide just in-case he could hear her, but he would not wake up and respond.

The shiny things were all neatly lined up beside him. Each object had a list of questions. _So many questions_. Each list was stored in her head waiting for the moment he could speak. _There were just so many questions_ , and the list grew every time Julii looked at the shiny pink-white man's naked body.

She looked at his naked body a lot, and even her own denial had to admit there were just too many leaves to justify fetching more. When the feelings he evoked inside her became too confusing, she distracted herself by re-cleaning his shiny things. _There were just so many questions and he would not wake up._ _But he was going to wake up!_

The bowed thing on top of the horse had been the heaviest of the shiny pink-white man's strange shiny possessions. It was not too heavy, just large and difficult to bring down from the horse, and hard to clean properly. Julii really wanted to clean everything properly. She believed that the shiny pink-white man would be more willing to answer her questions if he could see that his shiny things had been looked after properly.

The black moccasins were also not as heavy as they had looked before they were removed. She had tugged and tugged them away from his leg, and underneath even his feet were covered in a soft woven hide. _Did he really fear air touching his skin?_ _So many questions for when he wakes up._ _He will wake up!_

While cleaning the black moccasins, Julii found they were covered in a magical substance that, when rubbed, began to shine more and more black. It was incredible to see such a wonder, and many of her tribe watched in astonishment as her rubbing action kept bringing more and more of a shine.

None of her tribe could understand why the shiny pink-white man would go to the extraordinary lengths that must be required to create such a magical substance. No one in the tribe had a use for it, so they all assumed he must be a very vain shiny pink-white man who must be unhealthily obsessed by his appearance.

Upset by this negative assessment of her shiny pink-white man, Julii thought long and hard about a practical reason for his magical substance. She eventually surprised and amazed her tribe by pouring water onto the long black moccasins. It just fell off in beads and did nor soak into the hide beneath the black substance - proving the magical substance was to protect the moccasins.

Now Julii could be proud of her shiny pink-white man because everyone in the tribe could see a use for his magical substance. Many even wanted some for themselves, but other than the layer that was already on his long moccasins, the shiny pink-white man did not have any more among his possessions.

Proving her shiny pink-white man was not vain had been a relief for Julii but also caused her a lot of worry. Before she had dared show her tribe the trick of pouring water on the moccasins, she had first tried to cover the shiny things attached to the heel.

Much to her horror, the thing on the heel came off in her hands. She did not want her shiny white-man waking up to find that she had damaged one of his shiny things.

At first Julii thought she had broken his black moccasin. She felt sure that the shiny pink-white man would wake up and be angry with her. Worse, he would not answer any questions because he would be so furious but, much to her relief, she realized it was meant to come off. To prove it, she removed the shiny thing from the heel of his other black moccasin.

The purpose of those shiny things had been a mystery until Julii's close friend Ringwind worked out what they were for. Just by chance, Ringwind had noticed the shape of the shiny thing scarred into the horses flanks. Ringwind was clever. He saw how the pink-white man had made the horse move with the shiny things.

Then, much to her annoyance, Ringwind said that this was proof of the pink-white man's cruelty. He said that they should send him away now, tied to his scarred horse, before he wakes up. But Julii used her extensive vocabulary to form strong arguments, and she did not let that happen. _She was never going to let that happen._

Julii had known since the day after she found him by the waterhole that Ringwind didn't like her shiny pink-white man. This annoyed her because he had no reason to dislike him. Her pink-white man had not said, or done, anything to offend him. How could he? He had been asleep since the moment she freed his leg from the horse.

Halfway through the second day, Ringwind had simply poked his head into Julii's father's tipi; he looked at the man laying naked, then looked at her sitting beside him. He made a strange facial expression she had never seen before and walked away. From then on, Ringwind simply decided not to like her shiny pink-white man.

It was while thinking about the day Ringwind had poked his head into the tipi, Julii noticed the long shiny knife was no longer beside her pink-white man. It should have been there with all of his other shiny possessions, but it was missing and Julii was extremely concerned about it. The shiny hollow thing that covered the long shiny knife thing was there, but the knife itself was missing. _How can that be?_

Leaving her father's tipi, Julii asked everyone she saw where the long shiny knife could be but no-one knew. It was her mother who eventually told her that the knife and the horse had been put to work by her father.

Upset, Julii went out into the forest to tell her father not to use the pink-white man's things because he would be very angry about it when he woke up. _Because he was definitely going to wake up!_

When she found him, Julii was horrified to see her shiny white- man's horse loaded with freshly chopped firewood. She told him to stop what he was doing but her father told her that he simply didn't think the pink-white man would care because he would not survive the yellow sickness oozing from the cut in the back of his head.

This made Julii furious with her father. "How can you say such a terrible thing?" "What if the sky gods heard you saying such things?" "My pink-man is going to wake-up! "He is definitely going to wake-up!"

Unable to convince her father to stop using her pink-white man's knife, Julii gave up and returned to nurse him back to health. She just knew her father was wrong. _She just knew that her pink-white man would survive. When he woke up, she would explain how helpful his long shiny knife had been and he would understand._ _She would explain it all to her white-pink man._

 _Although it was summer now, he would know that winter always followed and they would need the firewood._ Then she wondered. _Would he know that?_ _Is it like that where he is from?_ _More questions for when he wakes up._ _Because he is definitely going to wake up!_

To take her fretting mind away from the impossible predicament her father had placed her in, Julii studied the pink-white man's gray body covering. It was clean, patched and hanging from the tipi.

Julii had beaten it on a rock at the water hole for the greater part of a morning because the stains had been caught within the woven fabric. She now thought of it as fabric and not hide, because no hide she had ever seen absorbed water like her white-man's coverings did.

She marveled at the tiny, beautiful stitches joining all of the separate tightly-woven panels together. She was particularly fascinated by a small part at the bottom of the gray covering. In the place where men make water, there were two panels that were not connected by stitches. There were holes on one panel and round shiny things on the other. On the day she and her mother undressed her pink-white man, Julii had watched her mother force the shiny round things through the holes to make the two panels come apart.

While washing the gray garments, she had pushed the shiny round things in and out of the tiny holes several times. It was so simple but so clever. Of course, everyone in Julii's little tribe had carved bone clasps that join one piece of hide to another, but nothing that hid themselves so cleverly away like her pink-white man's shiny round things.

Looking at the top part of her pink-white man's gray covering, Julii admired the shiny things embroidered around the yellow thing that fitted so tightly around his neck. _He must be important to have such extraordinary clothes, maybe even a chief._

Julii felt proud that she was taking care of someone so important. _But why won't he wake up?_ _Her father cannot be right._ _Her pink-white man will not die._ _Her shiny pink-white man will wake up and tell her about the world he is from._ _He has to wake-up._ _He will wake-up!_

Looking over her shoulder to make sure no-one was watching, Julii prodded her pink-white man. She had been prodding her pink-white man with her finger from time to time for days.

Every time she did it, she told herself it would be the last time but, just sitting looking at him, she couldn't restrain herself. Julii had to know more about the world outside of hers, she had to learn everything about his world. _There were just so many questions._

Then, one day, her waiting simply came to an end. His eyes just flicked open, just like that. No prodding required, not even one of her gentle ones.

After glancing at her and all around the tipi, her pink-white man became scared and panic-stricken. Julii wondered why he seemed so terrified; it was for no reason she could understand. He tried to stand. He couldn't do it. He was too weak.

Water and a little cold possum soup wasn't enough for a man like this, and Julii knew it. She would have liked to have fed him more, but there had simply been no way of doing it in his condition.

Julii held out a large leaf with cold meat and berries on it. He pulled away from her as though she were evil. Then, moving rapidly, he rudely grabbed the leaf and forced everything on it into his mouth with his hand.

 _Meat and berries in one mouthful?_ Julii was confused. Here was another question to ask her shiny pink-white man. _Who eats meat and berries in one mouthful?_

Already she was learning something new about her pink-white-man and his strange world. _This was exciting._ She handed him a deer hide water skin.

While chewing and slurping desperately at the water skin, he looked at Julii. It wasn't the look she had been anticipating. That look would have been grateful and excited, even a little flirtatious. The look he was giving her was angry, fearful, contemptuous, even a little disgusted.

Julii reached for the empty leaf and he pulled away from her as he spoke a string of gibberish. What came from his mouth had no discernible meaning but she could not mistake the scornful tone in the noises that sounded something like: "Get your goddamn red-nigger hands away from me!"


End file.
